‘There were a fine manly lot of fellows’: Cricket, rugby and rhodesian society during william milton’s administration, 1896-1914

Abstract

Recent research has uncovered details of William Milton's considerable influence on South African cricket during its early international experiences. Tracing Milton's progress north of the Limpopo is an extension of that work and opens another area that has received surprisingly little critical attention. This paper will explore the extent to which cricket and rugby were both shaped by and helped shape Rhodesian society during Milton's tenure as administrator. It will examine Rhodesia's early sporting ties as well as some of the key individuals and events involved in games that reflected broader social, economic and political processes in the unsettled years before the First World War. © 2008, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.